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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

4648.0. "The Euro-Demo Note" by BOLTON::PLOUFF (Ahhh... cider!) Mon Apr 01 1991 14:12

    This note is for discussion of European Demos, those disks of brain
    candy mostly from A500 hackers in the EC countries.  Why not?
    
    Notes to the uninitiated:  These demos offer neat graphic tricks, good
    music and cryptic greetings from one demo-coder group to the others
    they know.  The disk format for each is almost certainly non-standard,
    and will probably cause a "Not a DOS Disk" message when inserted in the
    drive.  Standard procedure is to boot from the demo disk, then click to
    get from the intro screen to each demo section in turn.  Expect a lot
    of obscenity.  Most run in PAL screen mode only.
    
    The standard of comparison, IMO, is the Wild Copper demo.  This one
    has been around a few years and is discussed in an early note in this
    conference.  It's uploaded at
    		TAPE::AMIGA:[AMIGA.COPPER_DEMO]*.*
    American machines can see this demo in all its glory by modifying the
    disk with PALboot.
    
    I've just uploaded a rather nice demo, System Violation, to 
    		TAPE::AMIGA:[UPLOAD]SYSTEMVIOLATION.DMS
    
    This demo needs to be unpacked with DiskMaster, which is on Fred Fish
    disk 406.  It is all devoted to special graphic effects and runs on
    both NTSC and PAL machines.  The programmers are Brits, so the English
    text is actually understandable.  This is not as amazing as some demos,
    but it runs well on my A2000 - no disk gronks or long pauses.  The
    music is very well done.
    
    However, the music is slightly out of sync with the visuals in the NTSC
    version, and the "vector objects" portions spread garbage over the
    whole screen.  I haven't figured out yet how to force my machine to
    boot on PAL mode for this one -- PALboot destroys the custom bootblock.
    
    Wes
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
4648.1SIEVAX::JAMIELucifer: Horny as Hell !!!Tue Apr 02 1991 05:3626
    I bought an Amiga on the weekend and to see what could be done I got
    hold of a couple of demos; Budbrain 2 and Coma. They're both really
    impressive - the Budbrain 2 features the death of Madonna and the
    come-uppance of her killer, seperated by a great piece of music
    entitled "Africa". The Coma demo disk has about 8 demos on including
    the true "coma" demo which is the closest thing to a music video I've
    seen on a home computer! Truly stunning!
    
    Bear in mind though, that I'm coming from an ST background so much of
    the "sight and sound" demos look very impressive to me! I was an avid
    collector of demos on the ST and expect to get quite a few on the Amiga
    once I've established some contacts for the machine. Something I find
    suprising is that on the ST the demos often had up to 20 impressive
    screens whereas the demos I've seen on the Amiga are far shorter and
    smaller. Is this simply because more people have expanded memory in the
    Amiga world and so less attention is paid to packing software (the mega
    demos on the ST were highly compressed) ? Or is it something more
    fundamental ?
    
    I'd upload these if it were easy; I've got a PC on my desk connected to
    the easynet - is there an easy way to make this transfer ? (I guess I
    ought to get that FF disk with the disk compactor on it first...?).
    
    Cheers,
    
    				Jamie.
4648.2SIEVAX::JAMIELucifer: Horny as Hell !!!Tue Apr 02 1991 05:388
    I think this is as good a place to ask as any; are there any Amiga
    users in the Reading area that fancy swapping demos etc ? I'm very
    much a "lone" user at the moment...
    
    Cheers,
    
    
    				Jamie.
4648.3Please upload!BOLTON::PLOUFFAhhh... cider!Tue Apr 02 1991 10:4920
    re: .1 ease of uploading
    
    If your PC has a 3.5" disk or your Amiga has a 5.25" disk then you
    probably will have a very easy time of it.  (This is a rehash of
    another recent note.)  DMS (Fred fish disk 406) seems to be the latest
    and greatest way to capture disks track by track.  I'd suggest making
    DMS archives of a demo disk in two pieces: tracks 0-39 and then 40-79. 
    Then format PC-format disks _on your Amiga_, copy the files onto the PC
    floppies, and bring 'em into work.  I think that in order to upload
    binary images successfully you will have to use NFT on the PC.
    
    On the Amiga side, the relevant utilities are the format and copy
    utilities that come on the Extras disk of the OS (not very fast),
    CrossDOS or its shareware equivalent, MSH.
    
    I for one encourage other people to upload Euro-demos, for no other
    reason than they are wonderful mindless diversions, the romance novels
    of the Amiga.
    
    Wes
4648.4BAHTAT::FORCE4::hiltonHow's it going royal ugly dudes?Wed Apr 03 1991 05:3812
re .2

Jamie,

Not Reading but Leeds.

Copy your demos onto some disks and shove them into the internal post
for GREG HILTON@LZO, I'll then send the disks back with the demos I've got!

Cheers,

Greg
4648.5SIEVAX::JAMIELucifer: Horny as Hell !!!Thu Apr 04 1991 04:427
    Has anyone got the Crionics Megademo ? How about a review ?!!! Also,
    anyone seen any Alcatraz demos ? What's the best they've done ?
    
    Cheers,
    
    
    				Jamie.
4648.6SIEVAX::JAMIELucifer: Horny as Hell !!!Thu Apr 04 1991 11:5616
    I got the Crionics Total Desctruction Demo; quite short, very nice
    effects, good music. Though I expected more.
    
    Also got the Kefren (?) VIII demo (2 disks) - it's got about 12 demos
    on it in all, of which two or three are REALLY good (one is in the
    style of Shadow of the Beast, with the parallax scrolling etc) the rest
    are mediochre.
    
    And I got a 3-disk music demo; it's got about 10 soundtracks on it. I
    think it's called Mussex II. Can't comment on it until I get my 1 meg
    memory upgrade (C'mon GPO! Do your job!)...
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    				Jamie.
4648.7SIEVAX::JAMIELucifer: Horny as Hell !!!Thu Apr 04 1991 11:579
    Incidently, there's a shop in Reading (well Tilehurst) called Computer
    Visions. They sell PD over the counter for a pound a disk. They've got
    volumes of demos etc. Well worth a look if you're in the area.
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    
    				Jamie.
4648.8More "demos" please! AMIGA::RIESOS/2 = Half an Operating SystemThu Apr 04 1991 13:265
If anyone has any of these "demos" that have not been uploaded to TAPE::, could
I please encourage you to do so. I to really like this sort of "mind candy".
Also, any soundtracker stuff would also be much appreciated.

Frank